Jackdaws & Other Birds

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Fresh Blood

Late in the summer I was hiking in the Åland Islands (archipelago between Finland and Sweden), and the following happened.

I was sitting at the park, waiting for a bus to leave to the northern parts of the island. Near to me there was this thing.

I guess it's some kind of modern piece of art consisting of crossing metal rods. Soon enough I noticed, that a jackdaw was stuck from his neck to the part where the rods cross. I thought he was dead - whatever, there's plenty of them around. I sat some more. Jackdaw seemed to be still alive! I guess I thought that it's not the birds fault that some artist had built such a metal monstrosity to the middle of the jackdaws home territory. I helped the poor bird out of its snare and put in on the grass where I left it to recover.

From that moment on the trip was a strange one. After I left the park the same jackdaw followed me in close vicinity, didn't come to the bus though. Stepping out of the bus, there was a jackdaw waiting near. I don't think it was the same bird. I laid on my back by the gate of the church soaking up the sun. A jackdaw by my side. Now I left to the forest side and thought that this jackdaw episode should be over now. True enough, I saw no more jackdaws. Can't say the same about other birds though. On "Getaberget" near the top of the hill, there was ospreys home tree.
The bird rose to the air while I passed her tree. It spiralled low in the air and screeched at me. The bird gently escorted me for about 2 kilometers before returning to her home. Immediately afterwards an eagle took the role of the escorter. Flying ahead of me, he flew a few times from one tree to another, until he heavily flew to the sea. At that moment I yelled to all the birds of Åland, both in Finnish and Swedish, that I like the presence of birds, but you don't owe me anything for saving the life of one jackdaw.

Devoted Cultist

Lovely story, thank you for sharing. Who knows if it was anything significant.....what's the word for when we imbue human feelings/motivations to animals? It could be a case of that, or something all the more spectacular. I just adore birds, so I prefer the latter.

Great Old One

The real life Kes: Schoolboy befriends jackdaw as he walks to school – and now they’re inseparable
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:58 AM on 18th March 2011

Parents and pupils at St Mary's RC Primary School in Sunderland complained of being tormented by this jackdaw when it first began appearing at the gates in early December.
It menaced pupils, divebombing children whenever they ventured outside the classroom. Children were so terrified that teachers shortened playtimes and kept them inside to prevent further attacks.
The council even gave the school a high-tech bird scaring device to try to drive it away.

But now, like a real life Kes, the bird has befriended one pupil who passes it on his way to school. Amazingly, the bird started landing on ten-year-old Emmanuel Adams' shoulder as he walked to class.
His feathered friend, who he has named Jack, has taken a shine to Emmanuel, who says the bird is 'not a bully'.
Just like the 1969 film Kes, where a Northern schoolboy tames and befriends a wild Kestrel, the bird and the boy have become firm friends.

And for the past few days the curious crow has even been living with the Adams family, alongside three dogs, four fish and Emmanuel's sisters, Rebecca, 16, Alexi, 11, and Androniki, nine.
Emmanuel's mother, Carolyn Adams, 46, a full-time mum, said: 'The bird took an instant liking to Emmanuel, he would approach him as he walked to school. He picked him out from the other schoolkids.
'One day he just sat on Emmanuel's arm and from then on he would go to school with the bird perched on his arm or shoulder.
'A lorry driver nearly crashed watching him, he was so amazed by it. :shock:
'On Tuesday it wouldn't leave his arm and he walked straight into the house with it. It seems to have settled here and it sits and lets Emmanuel stroke it.
'Emmanuel has been sat with Jack on his shoulder watching telly and while he had his revision work on his lap, Jack was trying to turn the pages.
'I've got some wild bird feed and I've read online that they're omnivorous so I gave him some of our mince and pasta last night. I've given him fruit too.

Mrs Adams admitted she feels bad about having a wild bird in the house and said she has contacted bird charities for advice on looking after Jack.
She added: 'I don't know what I'm going to do with him yet. If I am advised to let him go then I will.
'Emmanuel will be devastated to be parted from him but I want what's best for the bird.
'And if the bird wants to be with Emmanuel then how can that be a bad thing?'

Emmanuel said : 'Any time I walk to school or come back, it goes on my arm. It's been happening since January and last week it followed me all the way home and into the house.
'I've called it Jack if it's a boy and Jackie if it's a girl.'

Abominable Snowman

As lovely as this story is, it is doomed to end up with either some twat popping the jackdaw with an air-rifle, or a cat jumping on it because it's not paying attention like a jackdaw should, or ....... well, the possibilities are endless. It all ends up with a heartbroken little lad though.

Abominable Snowman

OK, So a few years back I watched a pair of crows head strait out to sea, looking at them with bino's,kept watching till they were too small to see. France is 70 miles due South, (40 miles South East)) the direction they were flying,I can think of no good reason crows would fly 70 miles,posted it on a local ornithology website, for a couple of weeks after that other people were posting about crows coming in off of the sea?.
White patches on their wings?, I'm sure I posted many years ago on here about the large number of crows around here (East Sussex) that have this, still see lots of them, nearly always on top of the wings.Anyone else see this let me know.

Devoted Cultist

When we first moved into this house, in 1999, a pair of magpies were frequent visitors to our garden, and one of them was white and gold. So magical. We live in the city but have lots of mature trees around us and so lots of bird life, included a tawny owl that we hear and never see, most recently a song thrush and during the England match last night a never-before-seen Jay appeared. Once we had a peahen and peacock visit too. They took a good long, leisurely look around, freaking out the chickens I kept at that time!

Abominable Snowman

Bastard jackdaw swooped me the other day. It was watching me up close so I thought it was being friendly, then I walked off and it swooped right past my head, nearly shit myself. It clearly had a nest in the house I was at.
I had a pair of magpies build a nest beside my house this spring, I fed them every day, even in the snowy weather I'd go out and clear a space so they could get whatever I was feeding them. The pair moved on and now (I assume) their two babies hang around my garden for food. It's as if the parents know their babies will get a meal from me so they go elsewhere to find food. They're fun to watch, one of them sneaked up behind a big gull on the fence the other day and pecked its tail feathers, the gull fell off in fright, it was pretty funny.